Distance Education/Virtual Schools

This week we talked about Distance Education and virtual schooling. This is getting an education over the internet without having to go to campus constantly. There are schools like University of Phoenix which the majority of it's students don't even live in the same state. Valencia is a Florida school that is based largely on distance education. Also, Florida Virtual School is a grade school distance education program in which there aren't live classes to attend. There are many benefits to these programs. Students with disabilities don't have to be forced to sit in a classroom when they could be disrupting others. They can just watch lectures online. Also, with these programs you could go back and watch a lecture as many times as you need to in order to understand the material and therefore work at a pace that is right for you. I think the best benefit to distance education is that it is cheaper. There doesn't need to be funding for the operation of a school so all that needs to be paid for is the internet connection, learning materials, and the teachers salary. There are also cons to distance education. We did a survey in class and most people did not learn as much from an online class. It's more of a relaxed structure so it's easy to get behind on material. Unless you are completely motivated to learn and love the class, it's hard to make yourself watch lectures or pay attention. For this reason, a lot of people don't get what they need to out of distance education. Also, it can be hard to communicate with teachers when it's solely internet based. The whole idea of virtual schools and distance education is a neat idea though and I hope one day we might be able to work out the quirks within the program.

In education, I can obviously use this concept. I could use this idea to teach or to learn. I could possibly do my doctorate completely over the internet if I wanted. This way I could continue to teach while attending school. I could also choose to teach with a school like these that are mostly internet based that way more students could be educated. However, I like face to face interaction more. I could use this concept though to place lectures online maybe for students that are going to be absent so that they know exactly what they are missing and get virtually the same experience as being in class.


This is a news clip of an Ohio station. They did a segment on distance education letting the public know some of the benefits.